From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ucbcad:tektronix!tekchips!teklabs!done
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Title: Re: On the fate of net.general
Article-I.D.: teklabs.1951
Posted: Wed Apr 27 09:22:48 1983
Received: Fri Apr 29 10:18:52 1983
References: cbosgd.3468

Why don't you call it "net.world" instead of "net.announce" or
"net.general".  It seems to me that it would then be clear where it
goes, and people would be a bit more discouraged to post trivial news
items in it (most of us are at least a little shy when confronted with
the world in its entirety).

One of the problems I've noticed with "net.general" is that new subscribers
to netnews have no idea of the scope of that newsgroup (they may think
it goes only to people in their own company/university/etc.).  Indeed,
many may not be aware of the scope of Usenet itself.  The use of the
name "net.announce" wouldn't solve this problem ("gee, maybe I'll announce
my beer party this Saturday night...").

To summarize, I think more geography-specific newsgroup names might give
a better indication of the scope of those newsgroups that are not devoted
to specific topics.

Don Ellis
Tektronix